Service dog and anxiety connection

[FindingMyself88]

Sounds like she is doing awesome! Sounds like you are also doing very good with her training. Now as far as "mastery" goes, it is not 90% until it can be done with distractions readily and repeatedly. There are 3 D's when it comes to training.. durance (length of time), distance, and distraction. You train these 3 things at different times. One training session work on length of time she can do something, the next distance (more for basic obedience, i.e. sitting and stay at a distance), then the next work on distractions, SLOWLY. Start by having the kitten or another person in the room, then build up to doing tasks outside. Then maybe go to a park and finally try it in a public setting. Anytime she seems to be failing or back pedaling, you need to back up and slow down.

I'll come back to the log in a second. As far as the public access, I would start with pet friendly places. How does she react to other dogs and animals? For me, this is mine and Bristol's issue. She is a rescue and where they kept her kenneled she was next to a bunch of dogs that barked at her and nipped through the cage. Now she reacts when she sees other dogs. She isn't aggressive and loves to play with them, but she loses all focus when she sees them and gets frustrated because she can't get to them. We HAVE to get this under control.

Anyways, try going to places like pet smart and petco. I would suggest going ahead and buying her some kind of "equipment". The ADA doesn't require it, but it makes your life a LOT easier! It can be a vest or a bandanna. I have a vest for Bristol, but I am considering switching to a bandanna because when she is grounding me I like to pet her and the vest gets in the way. You are probably going to run into some access issues because a lot of people still don't realize that smaller breeds can be service dogs too. I have issues because Bristol is a Boxer/Lab mix which is not the typical SD breed. I would HIGHLY recommend reading up and knowing the ADA laws. Also Service dogs in training are not covered by the ADA and so you need to know your individual state's law concerning SDiTs (Service Dog in Training). I also have went on tons of websites and talked to other SD handlers and read their issues with public access and learn the "right" way to handle those situations because they will arise sadly.

I think I saw you mentioned her barking? This needs to get under control before you take her in non pet friendly places. Google "teaching my dog not to bark." and only use POSITIVE reinforcement training. Most tell you to teach the dog to bark on command first, then work on not barking. I'm not sure on that because Bristol doesn't really bark unless we are at home and someone knocks.

Once you have the barking under control, start trying to take her places. You can buy "dog purses" at most pet stores to keep her in that you carry just like a purse. My biggest tip on public access is only take her when you are going with someone else to shop or just plan on training, not shopping. This is because in the first few months, your total attention needs to be on her! I am just now at 3 months starting to do short shopping trips by myself with Bristol. Granted for us it's a bit more difficult, because I had to train her to heel while using a buggy and to sit every time I stop, and not to react to other people while walking. Anyways, make sure to take treats with you so you can reward good behavior. The first few trips will be getting her use to new environments, take her to all types of different stores. I would wait on restaurants until you KNOW she can remain laying down and out of the way the entire time, even with the smell of food.

As far as the school goes, I would only take her if you know she can sit quietly without bothering you. Remember she is not a pet while in public, she is working. She doesn't need to be distracting you from the meeting. Also, I would contact the school ahead of time to alert them that you are bringing a service dog. I was already registered with my school's disability support services and told them. It was no issue, but it is better for someone to know.

Finally, the training log! Even though under the law Bristol is now a fully trained service dog, meaning she has her basic obedience, public access, and tasks, I still say she is in training and will until we have trained at least 6 months to a year and we work out the dog issue. So I still keep a training log. It is good to see how far you've come and what you need to work on. It also is proof of training should something happen and you need proof. I can copy and past a copy of the beginning log I have for Bristol and then a weekly log I have for her below.


BEGINNING LOG/BASIC DOG INFO


TRAINING LOG

Owner Trainer’s Name: ----

Dog’s Name: Bristol

Breed: Boxer & Lab mix

Gender: Female

Approximate birthday: September 2012

Date Received: May 26, 2014

Training when received: house trained and leash trained.


Health: Good. Tail injury due to “Happy Tail Syndrome”



WEEKLY TRAINING LOG!


Week of 5/26/14-6/1/14 Obedience Hrs: 5.5 Tasks Hrs: 1.55 Outing Hrs: 5


Name: Bristol

Age: 20 months

Needs work on: Being around cats/dogs, focusing on me, no barking.

New Things Learned: Sit, Down, Stay, Come, Leave It, Heel, Ground, alert, target…including hand signals for sit, down, stay, target, alert.

Any Health Issues: Tail keeps bleeding. Will be getting docked in a few weeks. Ear mites are being treated with drops.


Obedience Hours: 5.5 hours

-Monday: 45 minutes obedience. Sit, Down, some stay.

-Tuesday: 1 hour obedience. Sit, Down, Stay, Come, Leave It.

-Wednesday: 30 minutes. Stay and Leave it.

-Thursday: 30 minutes down and stay. 5 minutes Heel

-Friday: 30 minutes basics

-Saturday: 45 minutes basics. 30 minutes on no barking.

-Sunday: 1 hour basics. 15 minutes no barking.


Tasks Training: 1.55

Monday: None

Tuesday: 15 minutes “grounding”. 5 minutes on “alert”

Wednesday: 5 minutes on “alert”. 5 minutes on “target”. 10 minutes on “grounding.”

Thursday: None

Friday: 15 minutes Alert and Target. 5 minutes ground.

Saturday: 20 minutes alert and Target. 5 minutes ground.

Sunday: 30 minutes alert, target, ground.


Outings: 5

Monday: Went to J's for 2 hours. Did some training and interacting with people and dogs.

Tuesday: 20 minutes of walking up and down neighborhood.

Wednesday: None

Thursday: 15 Sat outside at counseling. 15 minutes at sonic. 30 minutes at Hope Animal Clinic- didn’t do so well with cats.

Friday: 10 minute walk in neighborhood

Saturday: 1 hour Mrs. B’s house with her and dog. 30 minutes of socializing in neighborhood.

Sunday: None


I couldn't make it show here, but I also color coded things, like putting health issues in green, training issues or problems in red, etc. This is just my way, you can take this and modify it into your own if you want, or create your own. You can see I put down EVERYTHING, especially in beginning training.

I know this is a LOT thrown at you, but I hope some of this is very helpful. Don't let it overwhelm you and take it a day at a time. I did TONS and TONS and more TONS of research before getting Bristol. There are days I do things wrong, but I know that Bristol is very forgiving. Oh the love of a dog :)!

One HUGE tip, never train when you are not feeling focused or you're frustrated! This will result in no learning happening and will only frustrate your dog. Keep up the good work ;)

 

[FabulousEnding]

That's what I meant by mastery... that she has fully learned the tasks and is ready to start practicing them out in the real world. She's actually great with all animals. I took her on a not-barking focused training walk tonight, and she touched noses with sheep and goats, etc. Never barks at a dog. Only barks at people. But tonight every time I saw her thinking she was about to bark, I crouched down on the ground, called her to walk back to me and gave her some sliced turkey meat. I did this as many times as needed every time she thought about barking. It worked. She's shown remarkable improvement in this one outing... just needs to be tested more at places like garden centers (once I'm confident she will rarely bark), the local hardware store, the local mall that shouldn't even be called a mall lol, college orientation, etc. I've also talked to my trauma recovery therapist and will be getting a letter from her to give the school, along with my accommodations request. I've let one of my professors know already I'll be bringing her with me. I also plan on stopping by the city hall building to get her registered as an assistance dog (I'm in a small town) for no cost. I also plan on taking her to the college campus several times to get her used to the campus, as well as RSVPing for an orientation so that she may get accustomed to the environment.

Thanks for the training log example!! :) AND I really like your point about don't train while frustrated or tired. I tried yesterday and we were both like blahhh I don't want to move. HAHA! But she is moving remarkably well. I had my boyfriend come with us on the training walk today and he is very impressed with both of us. :)

Once she stopped barking she started sniffing everything around her more and then I would say "Sniiiffff" in a sing song voice so she knows what she is doing has a word. Public access is the hard part. I'm determined to have her ready before school starts, but if she's not ready yet... then I'll have to go without her the first week or two, but she's doing so damn well with 21 days left, that it seems mostly possible.

 

[FindingMyself88]

Sounds like she is doing great :) Just don't push her beyond what she is ready for and she will make a great service dog! I took Bristol to wal-mart to do some training. She did extremely well. I would find empty aisles to do some training with her and people would stop and watch us, that kind of freaked me out. We worked on down stays while I walked away and also allowing me to walk over her. This is so if we are in class or some kind of row, someone can step over her without her getting up. We also worked on her staying sitting and looking at me while I talked to someone. She did good until on the way out someone looked at her and started talking directly to her and she got excited.

Some days will be better than others. Just always remember she is a dog and has bad days too. Good luck with everything! I hope she is ready in time for school :). Me and Bristol have until January to get ready for school so I am taking it nice and slow!

 

[FabulousEnding]

Would you say it's better to take the dog into Walmart for the first time late at night when it's not as busy, or better to just go during normal times? Thanks for all the advice btw! :)

 

[FindingMyself88]

I would definitely say during a low traffic time, whenever that is for your town. Here, it is during the week day while most people are at work. I do two different training focuses when we go just for training. I do basic public stuff where we go up and down aisles with people, sit while I look, go to food aisles and make sure she doesn't try to "explore" or sniff things. Then we go to less crowded aisles, such as like the car section or gardening aisles. There we work on down stays and me walking over her. Then we go to the pharmacy to sit down on a bench and work on her grounding tasks. We work on alerts in all places.

The most important thing is be prepared to be your own advocate and your dog's. I think I said it before, but know the SDiT laws for your state and the ADA laws in general. I keep a copy of them in Bristol's vest at all times. People are going to have ALL kinds of reactions from making rude comments about why is there a dog in there, to that can't be a service dog, to OH MY GOSH I WANT TO PET IT IT"S A DOG!!!!!!

Service dog handler's make their own decisions about allowing people to pet the dog or not. Right now I don't allow people because she just gets SO happy and excited. I have a patch on her vest that says "DO NOT PET" but people do not pay it attention. Sometimes I have to physically get between people to stop them from petting her. I have had people call out and make kissy noises and barking noises to distract her.

Be prepared to be starred at like you are some alien or something. Be prepared to be stopped by A LOT of people and be asked all kinds of questions about her. Questions like "What breed? What kind of service dog? What does she do? Why do you need her? You don't look disabled, are you a trainer? etc", Some of those questions can be personal, especially in the realm of "psychiatric service dogs". For me, Bristol also alerts and helps with head injury issues such as headaches and dizzy spells so I tell people she is a medical alert and response dog. Which is true on both ends, she alerts me to panic attacks as well. My advice is go ahead and think about these questions now and prepare/think about what you want to say to them. This helps with the petting issue too. I simply tell people "I'm sorry, she is young and in training, so being petted OR talked to distracts her." for kids I simply tell them she is working and can't be petted.

I am not saying all of this to scare you, but to prepare you. Because Bristol is a Boxer mix, some people think she is a pit bull. I have had people freak out and yell "That dog will bite!" and Bristol is just staring at them like what are you talking about, I want to love on you?! I have come not to be surprised at the different responses I get.

You are welcome for the help, sorry if I say too much. I just want to prepare you in ways I wasn't prepared. All of this said, it is TOTALLY worth it all to have gained my freedom and some confidence back! Most of all to be able to go into a store and not either completely melt down and panic or be a dissociative zombie the whole time :).

 

[KwanYingirl]

Why do people try to taunt and distract Bristol? That's just plain mean to her. How long have you been training her? I can't see Annie not get excited to be with people. She goes to work with me and she greets all my clients with joy. I have a couple young girls who like for her to lie with them while I do their treatment because it reduces their anxiety and pain. Plus their Moms watch her for me to make sure she doesn't fall off the table!!

 

[FindingMyself88]

Because people are just plain mean. Some people also can't grasp the concept that she is working and doesn't need to be distracted. I also get people who will talk directly to her, but not even acknowledge me, that is EXTREMELY frustrating! Because it distracts her, gets her excited, and they act like she is just a normal dog. I have had one lady in one of those scooters come into an aisle with us, get so close that she has us pinned up against the shelves and pet Bristol all the time I am saying "Ma'am, she is working and this is distracting, please let us out!" I eventually had to literally push the back of the scooter out just enough for us to escape!! I have more issues with adults than children honestly :cautious:.

I also had one lady ask what she was training for. I was not in a good mood so I just gave the generic "She's a medical alert dog." She then says "Well, there are many types of medical alerts, what is she." I look at her like really?! So then I saw "She alerts to several different issues." She continued to stare at me like I should just spill my guts until I was able to walk off (was trying to get some milk). I thought that was the end of it, then when I was in line to check out I see her in another aisle. She leaves that aisle and follows us! While I am trying to put my groceries on the counter, she is constantly asking questions, trying to get me to tell her what kind. She even asked questions like "Can your dog sense issues in other people, like cancer and diabetes? Do you have seizures, is that what she alerts to? She is leaning against you right now, is that an alert?" Bristol was leaning against me, trying to keep me grounded because I was getting very anxious. I finally snapped and said "Look Ma'am, she is in training and my health is my personal issue that I don't always feel like sharing. No, she can't sense your needs because she is focused and trained only to alert me. Have a nice day!" Normally I don't mind trying to educate people and sometimes I even share about PTSD, but this was a bad day and all I wanted to do was get some groceries and go home. Plus the lady was just obviously prying into my life!

lol, I have so many stories for just the 3 months we've been training, well 2 and a half. I got her May 26th and we started basic obedience right away. The training log above is of the first week I got her and you can see we were busy! Within 3 weeks she started going to stores with me.

How old is Annie? The MOST important thing a Service Dog needs to be able to do is keep their focus on you. Focus will help with her getting overly excited, it is slowly helping Bristol. I dare say 60% of our training everyday is focus! Eventually it will get where when anyone talks to her, she will look at me for what to do. Already I can tell her to ignore someone looking at her as we walk by and she does.

While I think it is great what Annie does, it may inhibit her from focusing on you. From one SD training group I am getting advice from, they say your dog needs to interact with other people/family only at MOST 25% of the day, the other 75% needs to be strictly interacting with you.

Being friendly is one thing and like I said before, it is up to each handler whether they allow people to pet their SD or not. However, Annie will need to be trained out of going to greet people without prior permission from you. Something I want to eventually train Bristol is a "go meet" cue. Someone else I talk to that trained her Standard Poodle SD trained her dog a "go visit" cue and a "working" cue so that she could allow her to greet, but then call her back to focus. Maybe this would work for Annie? I am doing something similar with Bristol with dogs with a "go play" cue. But first I have to get her focus mastery to at least 90%.

 

[FabulousEnding]

Oh wow! People are so horrible! I'm hoping since I'm in a small town and prefer to only get groceries at Target (it's the smallest grocery store around) and taking her to school hopefully people will get used to it. Why on earth do people think it's their right to harass others?!?! Hopefully her being tiny and in a carrier will lessen the blow.

I actually don't mind the attention on the dog. I'm very fashion forward and men have deemed me to be extremely attractive, so I'm used to walking in a room and everyone staring at me like I'm an alien. Especially in this town where no makeup and sweatshirts are the norm. It would be a relief to have the attention on the dog instead of me! I'm terrified of men because I've been sexually assaulted too many times. Jersey hates people petting her anyways without her permission, and that's not something I want to train out of her honestly. I'm used to getting eye raped and refusing to leave the house because of it. In fact, when my boyfriend and I were taking jersey on a training walk yesterday, I was SO focused on her that I didn't even notice or react when my boyfriend told me a pack of guys were fantasizing about me in their heads. I walked away with no anxiety because all I could see was Jersey.

Would printable business cards with the laws and what she does be okay? Then when people ask questions I can just be like here. Cause sometimes I'm in a mood and don't want to talk.

Oh I wanted to tell you... I had a really rough flashback last night where I was half-way disassociating and fighting to not go full on. I called jersey over, and despite her being exhausted she came over and grounded me 3 separate times. She was watching me and studying my face trying to figure it out. I was feeling absolute terrified and could barely talk so I sat down and did the ground hand signal to her. She got up and laid across my lap. The third time during the worst moment I sat her up on my lap, hugged her and pet her, felt her weight and I felt my heart rate slow down dramatically. She was exhausted and comfortable too and did not want to get up, but I needed her so she did it. I felt a lot more secure seeing with my own eyes that she would be there for me. She even followed me outside and into the garage and back in the house keeping her eyes on me the entire time.

 

[FindingMyself88]

Aw she is very pretty and attentive :)

maybe it will be better in a small town. When I go home to my old town people are a little more considerate because they know me. Target is known to be a service dog friendly store :)

While I don't blame you about not training her to want petting, you need to be 99.9% sure she won't bite someone if they do try to pet. The first dog I tried was perfect for me, but she was protective. She never tried to bite anyone, but she would be extremely tense and give a warning growl if someone came close, especially if I was anxious. I had to give her up because I just could not take that risk. Plus it gives SDs a bad rep. Every time you go somewhere with Jersey, you are representing every service dog handler out there. You may be the only team a person meets and they will judge future teams off their experience of you. That's just the reality of it.

Business cards are a good idea, you can buy them off amazon. I plan on buying some soon, but surprisingly I've had very few access issues and normally that is more about people thinking Bristol is a pit bull than being a service dog.

That is a very good sign that she responded that way :). She will be a pro soon! Bristol is laying on my foot right now :p. She likes to maintain some source of contact with me, I think it is one way she senses when I am not okay. My profile picture is one of her btw. I'll post some more below :)

 

[FabulousEnding]

Awww she's so pretty! I love her name too btw. I wish I could rename mine but my boyfriend named her 3 years ago, and Jersey only met me 6 months ago hehe.

Yea you make a good point about not letting her do that. She lets out a warning growl even if it's a kid. It's probably going to be more challenging when I'm weary of strangers too. I wish there were meet up groups around here. I had a dog once that had issues with people and dogs, so we went on a christmas meet up walk. Rode a trolley, walked through the major downtown, went to a dog park, watched fireworks and she had so much fun she loved all dogs and people after that. She was an 8lb dog and spent the whole evening flirting with a husky lol. I'll have to figure something out. I'm hoping a carrier will help because she's so tiny that she growls to say don't step on me.

I'll look on amazon and see if I can find those cards or make some myself. I think vistaprint still does free cards if you allow their logo to be on it.

Target is SD friendly? I didn't know that! Well, I guess we'll be training there then haha. I just need to get her a carrier, but I don't have enough funds until my student loans come on. I'm hoping a relative will donate an old soft carrier to me that they don't use anymore.

Your dog has the sweetest face! Why would anyone think she would bite someone?

The picture I attached is an example of how comfortable and tired she was last night. Yet she still got up with no treat reward just because I needed her. I must have been visibly freaked out. She was staring at my face quite a bit.

 

[KwanYingirl]

Annie needs to relearn everything to make her a service dog. Maybe I'll just keep her emotional support status. It would break her heart if she couldn't interact with my clients. I take her to Target all the time. And Home Depot and my supermarket.

 

[Barberian]

Annie needs to relearn everything to make her a service dog. Maybe I'll just keep her emotional support status. It would break her heart if she couldn't interact with my clients. I take her to Target all the time. And Home Depot and my supermarket.

Self edit before hitting "Post Reply" - I may have gotten carried away with this post, but it is something I feel very strongly about.

Unless your state allows ESA's to go to public locations, taking your dog to public businesses is against the Federal ADA Law. Only service dogs have that access legally guaranteed. I'm not trying to be harsh, but as a service dog owner/handler I have had far, far too many encounters, no make that conflicts, with store owners/managers/workers about my service dog. I've had the police called on me several times because I stood up for my rights. I even have a case currently going to mitigation with the Department of Justice against Costco because of the harassment and discrimination I experienced there. Most of the conflicts are fueled by people passing their dog off as a service dog when in fact it is not. Do a Google search on "fake service dogs", then read the comments section under the article if there is one. The hatred the general public has towards not only fake service dogs, but also real service dog owner/handler teams is disheartening. Most of the negative responses I encounter were because someone brought their pet dog in and it behaved badly, going to the bathroom, barking, being aggressive, etc. I understand from your comment, your dog would probably not behave like that, but people breaking the law with pet dogs in general makes by blood boil, regardless of how well the dog behaves. If it is not a legal service dog, PLEASE do not pass it off as one and take it into public businesses as if it was a service dog.

You may have a well trained and obedient dog, but people who read your post, or hear you talk about your ESA going with you where ever you go may get the wrong idea and take their poorly trained dog and try to pass them off as a sd.

http://www.ada.gov/service_animals_2010.htm
http://www.iaadp.org/psd_tasks.html A list of other trained tasks your psychiatric dog could perform.

A service dog must be trained to help mitigate a disability. The rule states tasks with an s, so two tasks minimum. If you must take your dog with you, please take the time to make it a legitimate sd. You take your dog out in public, so an easy task to train a sd is to sit on command in front, either side, or behind you to keep people at least a few feet away from you. If this task helps mitigate your disability. I hate having someone in "my space" as it really feeds my anxiety. When someone wants to talk to me face to face, I have my dog sit in front of me. When I'm in the check out line at the store, I have her sit behind me. and when I'm looking at stuff on the shelves and such I can have her sit beside me and a person next to me. There are many more situations but that is the foundation of the task. Ideally the dog should sit facing you, but it is not required. There are many more tasks in the link I posted above that you may find helpful.

There is a lot of public pressure to regulate the training and certification of sd's to only being trained and certified by "professional" service dog trainers. Being that sd's can easily cost thousands to tens of thousands of dollars to be professionally trained, they would become unaffordable for most people who need them. Most people who need them are at the bottom of the income bracket as they are disabled and many are on government assistance because they can not work. People who take advantage of the sd system are the ones who will bring this about because it is so easy to have a fake sd. This drives the pressure to regulate and require certification(s).

Example of the bias sd owner/handlers experience on a regular basis.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/07/14/service-dog-tj-maxx_n_5585709.html Read the comments section also.

Link Removed The video didn't work, but the comments section is interesting.